


Snap Shot

by Bluewolf458



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2013-10-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 13:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1019102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A witness to a killing speaks to Don</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snap Shot

It was really quite exciting. Scary - well, nobody knew just what the man with the gun was going to do - but exciting. And it all happened so fast! I mean, one minute everyone was walking about the store, minding their own business, intent on their shopping. and the next there's a man lying in a pool of blood...

And I'd even spoken to him, and to the nan who shot hint!

Even as I - yes, gawked - at the man lying there I was aware of some of the other spectators slipping away... The good old not wanting to be involved, I suppose, even though all they'd be asked to do was tell the cops what they'd seen.

Anyway, there I was, me and a few others, still there when the police arrived. Well, I'd nothing else to do, really. After the insurance company where I worked amalgamated with another one and I was made redundant along with forty-nine others, I hadn't been able to get another job. Too old, they all said every time I applied for a job. Old! Sixty-eight isn't old, and I'm sure I work harder than a lot of the wet-behind-the-ears children straight from school that they prefer to employ - as well as knowing the work backwards. "Too set in your ways," one guy I spoke to said. "We prefer youngsters that we can train ourselves to fit our requirements. If you're really determined to carry on working, can I suggest that you look for work outside insurance? One where you were going to start not knowing anything, where you wouldn't have to unlearn old-fashioned methods?"

I suppose he meant well. But what's the point in having experience if you can't use it?

Everyone else suggested that at my age I should be retired... but I don't want to retire. I'm not ready for the scrapheap just yet.

But I was telling you about that day in the store.

The police asked those of us who'd stayed what we'd seen, took our names and addresses and told us they'd be in touch.

I'm not sure why it was the FBI who contacted me two days later and asked me to go in to their office later that day. I mean, you'd expect it to be the local cops, wouldn't you'?

The FBI agent who spoke to me was surprisingly young, and very nice and polite. All I knew about FBI men was what 1'd seen on TV, and he really wasn't pushy or threatening like the ones you so often see there.

"Good afternoon, Miss Parker. Please sit down," he said. "I'm Agent Eppes. Thank you for coming in. Now, I understand you were a witness to the shooting two days ago in Macy's."

"Yes, Agent Eppes. Yes. Oh, it was terrible! All that blood... " I knew I was babbling, but really... It had been so uncalled-for! That poor young man... I'd been all right the day it happened. but by next morning I'd started shaking, and I was still shaking.

"So can you tell me what happened?"

Oh, Agent Eppes was so calm, so self-controlled! I suppose it came with the job. He must have seen a lot that was as bad and maybe even worse, but I envied him that calm, I really did.

I took a deep breath, trying to control my shaking hands.

"I was in Macy's looking for something for my great-niece's birthday. She can be so difficult to please! Oh, she's always polite and grateful for whatever you give her, but sometimes you can tell that she's disappointed, that it isn't something she likes... "

l noticed the almost impatient look that he gave me, and broke off. "Oh, dear, you don't need to know that, do you'? Anyway, this young man came over to me, asking if I knew where in the store he would find a camera. Well, it wasn't something I'd thought of for Bethany, but that put the idea of looking at cameras into my head, so I told him it was the electronics department, and that I was going there myself. It was up three levels from where we were, so I took him to the elevator." I stopped, remembering how nice the young man had been.

"But you never got to the electronics department?" Agent Eppes asked.

"No. We were halfway to the elevator when another man called out, 'Morris!' The man with me stopped and turned, and waited for the man to reach us. 'I've got nothing to say to you,' he said, and then the second man shot him! He'd had his hand in his pocket, and when he took it out he was holding a gun and he shot him, without any warning.

"Then he looked at me. 'Who are you?' he asked. The way he was glaring at me, I thought for a moment he might shoot me, too. 'He just asked me where he could buy a camera,' I told him. He made an odd sound - it sounded as if he was muttering, 'Idiot!' and then he turned and ran away. By then someone was looking at the poor man on the floor - Morris - and saying 'Call an ambulance!' but he wasn't moving and there was all that blood... He's dead, isn't he?"

"No," Agent Eppes said. "He's still alive though the doctor doesn't hold out much hope for him. Anyway, what you're telling me is that he was shot by someone he knew?"

"Well, it was someone who knew his name, but if he'd nothing to say to the man, it maybe wasn't someone he knew well."

"Or someone he knew well but had fallen out with," Agent Eppes said, almost to himself. "Can you describe the shooter?" he went on.

"He was about the same height as Morris," I remembered. "Dark hair, brown eyes. He'd a long face - oval rather than round. Come to think of it, he looked quite like Morris. He was wearing a check shirt under his jacket, and jeans."

"Would you know him if you saw him again?"

"I think so," I said. In fact I was sure I would. You don't forget someone you saw holding a gun when you were on the wrong side of it.

That was four days ago. I haven't heard anything more, so I suppose nobody's been arrested yet. I mean, I'd expect to be called in to identify him. There hasn't been any announcement, either, that 'the man shot in Macy's has died' so I think he must still be alive.

I hope so. He was a very nice young man.

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually an exercise in writing an original character.


End file.
